2009-10-06

Spirit Sol 270

Thisol's another simple one, continuing our IDD work on Temples. After a couple of MI series, we stow the IDD so we can perform a test to help out the dynamic brake anomaly investigation. The steering test consists of steering all wheels straight, then turning the right front and left rear wheels -- the ones affected by the anomaly -- from zero to five degrees and back, in one-degree increments.

So not the hardest sequence we've ever had to build. But gratuitous complexity still crops up, at least for others: power modeling, for instance, continues to be a problem.

"After 270 sols, I'm still frustrated by power modeling," Rick sighs.

Arvidson replies: "Rick, I think you'll still be frustrated at sol 540, too."

Sadly, he's probably right. Some things have gotten about as good as they're going to get.